A depressed dyslexic man who drunkenly attacked his mother with a knife after he was made redundant has been jailed for two years.

Michael Flitter, 24, returned home after a day of drinking on October 24 and started an argument with his mother.

He did not like what she said so he went to the kitchen, picked up a 10 inch knife and pinned her to the floor where he was attacking her with it.

He slashed her across the arm when his sister Leanne came downstairs and tried to push him off, allowing his mother to escape and run down the street with her daughter. But Flitter chased them, brandishing the knife until they got safely into a neighbour’s property.

The court heard how Flitter, who admitted the offence two days after the attack, then trashed the house and car of his mother to what prosecutor Robert Spencer-Bernard called a “horrific level”.

Unemployed Flitter, of Westfield Road in Thatcham, claimed his depression at being unable to get a job led him to drink and he had no previous convictions.

The court heard he snapped at his mother, who was the only bread-winner in the family after his father was jailed for possession of a shot gun and sent to prison in April.

Ellis Sareen, defending, said: “I would suggest that although he was seen by Leanne to hold the knife inches from his mother’s head, the blade was pointing away suggesting that he did not intend to stab her, only scare her.

“He remembers nothing of the incident after starting drinking in the day to being apprehended by the police, and he has shown an exceptional level of remorse – even requesting to be remanded in custody because that is where he believed he deserved to be.”

Sentencing him to two years behind bars, Judge Bruce McIntyre said: “Anyone who drinks as much as he had on that day is not drinking for fun but drinking to try to put things out of their mind, that is my view.

“This must have been absolutely terrifying for your mother. The fact she only suffered one stab wound to the arm was more by luck than judgement because you did not know what you were doing because of the state you were in.”

Flitter was ordered to serve two years for assault occasioning actual bodily harm and three months for criminal damage to run concurrently.